Ujurak
Ujurak (ooh-jew-rack) is a shape-shifting grizzly bear cub. History ''The Quest Begins Ujurak was saved by Toklo when he was cornered by some humans who tried to hunt him. That night, Ujurak turned into a flat-face, and then back into a bear later. Toklo found it hard to believe that they were the same. After the incident, Toklo and Ujurak started to travel together and follow a star in the sky. During the trip, he turns into a bird and a salmon on accident, but when they where hunting a mountain goat, he purposely turned into an eagle to catch it. One incident caused Toklo to leave him, but Toklo came back in the end. After eating the mountain goat, Ujurak accidentally turned into a hare and was almost eaten by Lusa when Toklo saved him. Ujurak then convinced Toklo to let Lusa travel with them. [[Great Bear Lake (Book)|''Great Bear Lake]] After Lusa joins him and Toklo they quickly become friends. Ujurak tells the group which way to go throughout their journey, first telling them to go along the Sky Ridge. When wolves chase him and his friends down the mountainside, Ujurak turns into a mule deer to lead them away. He succeeded in leading the wolves away and eventually managed to get away from them himself and get back to Toklo and Lusa in the form of a bear. He told them that while he was a deer he could think like one too. He had thought that every small noise was a flat-face hunter, and that all the water was sick. When they had to cross a river, he was shown to be a good swimmer. When the group reached some bogs Ujurak turned into a goose so he could find a way for Toklo not to have to cross the river. While he was flying he saw a flat-face bridge they could cross the bog on. While they are traveling over the bridge, he is hit by a large firebeast and was injured. Lusa found some herbs to help his wounds, and they began traveling again the next day. When they reach the lake gathering Ujurak says that this is where the signs he had reading led to. He is very interested in hearing the stories of the older bears and seeing the ceremonies for the Longest Day. He seesLusa talking to Toklo on Paw Print Island his head and flies over to it as a bird. Once Toklo tells him what is happening, he agrees to help. He accompanies Kallik in the form of a white bear to try and convince Salik and his gang not to steal from the black bears. When a fight breaks out, he changes back into the form of a grizzly bear to help with the fighting. After the battle, he has no problem with Kallik and Taqqiq joining them on their journey. ''Smoke Mountain Ujurak is still traveling with Toklo, Lusa, Kallik, and Taqqiq. Like the whole group, except for Kallik, he does not get along with Taqqiq. Ujurak shows them a path to follow through rocks and mountains and Taqqiq tells everyone else to go the opposite direction, into a lush forest. Toklo is angered when Ujurak agrees and goes off path to the forest. The group meets a strange bear who tells him about Smoke Mountain which is beyond a raging river. They can either cross the river or cross Smoke Mountain, the group decides the River is safer than the mountain. The old bear tells them a legend of a giant Flat Face who burns bears and eats them. He also says the river is very dangerous but there is a place to cross beyond a flat face denning area. The bear soon dies, as he is very old and frail. Ujurak helps bury him with the rest of the group.Taqqiq thinks its ridiculous that they are following the old bears advice to travel to the Great Wilderness and leaves the group to find his old friends. They reach the river at nightfall and Ujurak turns into a gull to help guide the other bears across. There are several small islands in the river and the bears use them for rest. All four bears reach the other side. When traveling over Smoke Mountain, Lusa is hit by a Firebeast and he helps Toklo carry Lusa away from the flat-faces. He heals Lusa with herbs and when she wakes up from being unconscious, Lusa tells Ujurak about a voice telling her to "save the wild". He says that he has had the same dream, but does not say anything else. The bears pass a Flat Face den and see bear skins on the roof, most likely drying them for further use. The bears are frightened by this, they believed Flat Faces only killed to eat like other animals but this is not true. They run from the sight, but he Flat Faces follow and chase the bears through the mountains. Toklo and the rest of the gang tell Ujurak to fly over a waterfall when they have to cross to get away from the flat faces, but he refuses. The hunters find the bears again and chase them, shooting at the bears and hitting Lusa's shoulder. Ujurak turns into a snowy owl when Toklo tells him to. It is very clear Ujurak does not like turning into other animals to make life easier for himself when his friend's can't. They escape the flat faces when Toklo is captured and the fire beast he rides in crashes over a cliff.Toklo almost dies. Finally, Ujurak leads the group to the Last Wilderness. The Last Wilderness Ujurak is very happy that they have made it to their journey's end, but a voice that has been guiding him since his journey's beginning keeps telling him that their journey is not done yet and he must save the wild. Ujurak tries to block it out of his head, but is still confused on what it means. One day he is hunting with his friends and Toklo tries to get him to turn into a goose and then get into the middle of the flock and turns back into a bear to hunt them, but Ujurak forgets that he is a bear and he flies away from his friends. When he stops to eat, he eats a fish hook that is covered in sea weed and he starts to die. When his friends find him, they tell him to turn into a flat-face then bring him to a flat-face healer who knows that he is a bear, but helps him. Later, other flat-faces come and take him away to an oil town hospital. There, Ujurak finds out about oil and what to flat-faces will to to get it. He gets mad and changes back into a bear. His friends find him and they try to leave, but they are spotted by flat-faces and Ujurak turns back into a flat-face and talks to a girl named Maria who helps them hide from flat-faces and then she shows them how to get back to the forest. When they go to where Maria told them to go, they don't know where to go so Ujurak goes up as an snowy owl and looks around, but keeps turning into animals who are affected from the flat-faces and he tells his friends that they must save the wild. Toklo gets mad at him, but later calms down when they see the northern lights and take that as a sign that they must go onto the ice. Fire in the Sky During Fire in the Sky, Ujurak understands he must let Kallik lead them across the ice. He seems to read the signs of whorls and bubbles under the ice as he would with the signs on land, after Kallik tells him they are the spirits of dead polar bears. After he and Lusa try to prevent a fight over Kallik and Toklo after Kallik fails to catch a seal,Toklo falls in to the ice a littel ways off so Ujurak transforms into a beluga whale to save Toklo. He manages to flick Toklo out of the water with his powerful tail, but naturally felt the beluga whale's draw to the ocean, and almost forgets about turning back into a brown bear. While underwater, he finds an underwater firebeast, which was spilling gritty black stuff in the water which reminded him of oil. He is then saved by a whale named Uglu, who is searching for Pukak, her calf. She refers to the firebeast as a 'Poisonbeast' and takes him back to her pod. He spends the night there as a whale. After hunting with them in the morning, Ujurak realizes they have many problems they cannot fix, and remembers he is a bear. He then reaches to the surface, while constantly reminding himself not to forget, then reaches the ice, and returns to his friends. He is very scared of what will happen when he transforms again, and stubbornly refuses. He later has a dream of his mother, who turns out to be the bear spirit in the pathway star. He is guilty of forgetting about her, and in the dream he is able to remember her and the first time he transformed into another animal, a mouse, when a mouse snuck into their den and stole a berry then he turned into one and had some berry but his mother told him you are a bear and you must never forget that. His friends were visited too, although Kallik believes it was Silaluk, Lusa believes it was Arcturus, and Toklo believes it was the lone bear so he tells him it is his mother. He tries to protest when Toklo announces he and Lusa had to return to the land, but is unable to stop them, and stays with Kallik. He once almost transforms into a white bear while fighting a walrus, but restrains himself. He also helps Kallik build a den for a bear named Iniq, who is going to have cubs, but they have to leave Iniq after a firebeast cracks the ice, and Kallik catches her a seal. After that, he reads a sign in a streak in the sky, which tells him they must find Toklo and Lusa. Once Ujurak and Kallik find Toklo, Kallik and Toklo tell him he must turn into a flat-face to save Lusa from the flat-faces who are keeping her after she falls into the oil spill. He refuses, until they convince him enough. This time, he turns into a sixteen-year-old, rather than a little boy, with no real trouble remembering he is a bear. Before going into their tent, he snatches some clothing, or pelts, as the bears call it, and then works with the animal protectors, Craig and Sally. On the second night, he sneaks in to free Lusa. Sally finds him, and he admits freeing her, and says Lusa is his friend. While she is shocked, he transforms back into a bear, escaping, although guilty. He then finds his friends, and they continue their journey under the Northern Lights. Ujurak's star Even before Ujurak met Toklo, he had been following a star in the sky which he had a very special connection to. He followed it whenever he could, and could even sense where it was during the day. Toklo did not like Ujurak's connection to it, because he felt it was his star and that it was unfair that Ujurak had such a great connection to it. Lusa also had a similar star. Later Ujurak finds out that his mother is actually that star. Ujurak's shape-shifting Many times during the books Ujurak turns into different animals on accident, though very rarely he can chose what he turns into. Normally when an animal scares or excites him, he may turn into it. Although he has shifted into many animals, he is still considered a grizzly bear. Sometimes, though, he forgets that he is a bear. He has shifted into: *a Flat-face *a Raven *a Salmon *an Eagle *a Hare *a Deer *a Goose *a Polar bear *a Mosquito *a Lynx *a Falcon *a Wolf *a Caribou *a Gull *a Beluga Whale *a Goat *a Snowy Owl *a Seal *Musk ox Quotes :"I will be with you every step of the way home"'' :—Ujurak as a spirit, Spirits in the stars, page 273 Category:Smoke Mountain Characters Category:Fire in the Sky Characters Category:Spirits in the Stars Characters Category:The Quest Begins Characters Category:Great Bear Lake Characters Category:Males Category:Bears Category:Grizzly Bears